Fifty Feet across the Street
by Avatard1234
Summary: Percy knew who Annabeth was-she was the girl that sat in front of him in History and knew all the answers. She also had the best butt in the entire school. And Annabeth knew who Percy was, too. He was the goofy hockey kid who was never, ever, on time. They never planned on growing close to each other but they also never planned on spying into each other's apartments. T for swearing
1. Percy I

_**To C - **_

_**Things are going to turn out just fine. I know that. But over the time that we've gotten to know each other there's been a lot of ups and down for me... and from what you've told me you had a few of those too. It's rough being away from you for so long and I find myself needing to shed these old feelings so that I can move on and grow as a person. Here's to us having the greatest year of our lives.**_

_**To D -**_

_** I can't offer you much (when I don't exactly have much to give). But this story is for you, because you've helped me out and been a friend even when I'm so centered on myself. Thanks for being that rock for me and being a better person than I could ever be.**_

* * *

**Percy I**

* * *

**Monday, Day 1**

* * *

Late, late, late.

I was so fricken late.

It's not like it mattered, anyways; being on time for the first day of school was a formality, right? I mean, everybody knows that the first day is always the same,

"_Hello class, I am Mr./Mrs. (insert name here). The class you are in is called, (really boring class title), and I'm sure we're going to have a great time this semester as long as you submit to my will, don't have any fun, and do the mountains of homework which I will be assigning."_

Blegh. Talk about wanting to vomit. It was the same thing year in and year out, in every school I've ever been to. I've actually been to quite a few but let's just not talk about it. I have a streak going and I don't want to screw it up.

Speaking of screwing up, if this bus didn't get a move on I was probably going to miss the entire first day! I whipped out my phone and flipped it open. Yes, flipped it open. No, I'm not one of those lucky kids with a new smartphone, I have a very reliable dumbphone with texting and calling abilities. I don't particularly care about it so much; don't get very many calls. Or texts. Or video messages. Actually, very little video messages. My phone can't handle it; it can barely handle receiving text messages. But still, it's not too big of a problem.

The real problem was that it was now 8:04. The first class began at 8:12 and there was a block and a half between me and my destination. The bus moved over to the curb, ready to come to a screeching halt in the middle of 3rd Avenue. I flew out the doors as soon as they opened, nearly stampeded some poor old lady.

"Sorry!" I yelled over my shoulder, school blazer flapping wildly in the wind. Rounding the corner by Mariella's Pizza (it was okay), I ran like my academic career depended on it. Which it might have…depending on what kind of mood the principle was in. Anyways, back to my running. Sprinting at this point—I had to get to the door as quickly as possible. You all probably don't know this, but to get into Washington Irving High School is that you've got to go through metal detectors, x-ray scanners, blah, blah, blah. And people _still _sneak in mp3 players, phones, and knives. I suppose the Stoll brothers are responsible for most of that. They've basically got the market for sneaking stuff in cornered. To their credit, though, they are strictly against sneaking in weapons. Other not-so-nice people do that stuff.

I reached the doors right as they were about to close; I grabbed one that only had a few more inches to go before being shut. The security guard, Argus, pushed it back open and gave me the stink eye. He knew I was always late and didn't like it one bit. He tapped his foot impatiently and raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I know," I said. "Late for the first day. My alarm didn't wake me up, my dog ate my homework, and I had to save Manhattan from an army of monsters."

Argus folded his big burly arms across his chest. He gave me a look that basically said, "_Army of monsters?"_

"They were going to take over the Empire State building!" I protested, trying to keep a straight face. Argus rolled his eyes and pushed me towards the security booth.

"Okay," I allowed, going through the metal detectors. "Maybe that one's a bit far-fetched. But I'll be on time tomorrow!"

Argus grunted at that. He waved me on to the office, indicating that I was done with security. Half-walking, half-running, I grabbed my new schedule and jogged to my first class. It was history, or something dumb like that. Halfway up the stairs, the bell rang.

"Aww, shit," I said, jogging the last few steps and beginning to run. The classroom was the second on the left; I whipped the door open and flung myself through it like I was trying to finish a race and break the tape before someone else did.

"Here!" I breathed, hands on my knees and catching my breath. The classroom broke out in laughter.

"Ahh, yes, Mr. Jackson," the teacher smiled. "We've been waiting for you."

"Thanks," I replied. "You could've started without me, though. I wouldn't have minded."

More snickering. The teacher smiled to himself, turning to his desk to grab a stack of papers.

"But then you'd have missed out on the syllabus!" he cried, pretending to be confused. "Then you wouldn't know what's expected of you in my class!"

By this time, I had wandered over to an open seat, next to my buddy Grover. I gave him one of those head-nod-_sup _-hellos that guys do all the time.

"Late on the first day?" he whispered. "That's a new low, Percy,"

"Get off my shit," I grunted. "I don't make exceptions for the first day of school."

Grover punched me in the shoulder. "Good to see you man."

I nodded my head in reply, mainly because the teacher was giving me a look.

"My name is Mr. Davis," the teacher said, writing it on the board. The girl in front of me passed me a stack of syllabi, from which I took one. "The class you are in is called AP United States History."

I sat up straight in my seat; fear made my hair stand on end. _Advanced Placement US History?_

"Dude," I hissed at Grover. "AP US History? How did I get in this class?"

Grover frowned at me. "You scored high enough on the test?"

"No I didn't!" I shook my head. "I don't score high on _any_ tests!"

Grover rolled his eyes. He was about to say something when the teacher interrupted us,

"Mr. Jackson," Mr. Davis asked. "Is everything alright?"

"No," I replied honestly. "I'm not sure I'm in the right class."

"Let me check my roster," Mr. Davis replied. He walked over to his desk and picked up a piece of paper and read it. "This says you are in this class."

"There must be some mistake," I replied, hopefully. Mr. Davis shook his head.

"No mistake," he replied. "You must have scored ninety-five percent or better on the social sciences exam last May."

"That's it!" I said. "They must have switched the numbers around. Fifty-nine percent sounds more my style."

The class laughed. I felt my face heat up a little. Mr. Davis smiled, despite himself. "Well, you're here now, so we're going to talk AP US History. You can sort through all that registration stuff later. Okay?"

He turned away and began to write stuff on the board; expectations, the grading scale, and what the semester was going to be composed of. Three tests, two major papers, and plenty of assignments in between. I never felt so freaked out in all of my life.

_What the hell am I doing here?_ I thought. _I'm going to die. I'm going to die a long, agonizing, academic death._

"Okay," Mr. Davis continued, bringing me back to reality. "Because it's tradition, we're going to all introduce ourselves and then I have a surprise for you."

Que the collective groan. The teacher just smiled at this and pointed to the first row of students, instructing them to stand up and get going. I didn't pay much attention to the introductions; I knew basically everyone. Instead, I let my head hit the desk, feeling the weight of the world crash down on me. And Advanced Placement class. As if I didn't have enough to worry about.

"Dude, you're next," Grover said loudly. I watched him sit down out of the corner of my eye; I realized that he had just introduced himself. With a sigh, I stood up.

"Hey," I said, waving stupidly to the class. "I'm Percy."

I stood there for a second and then scratched my head. "Is that it?"

The class laughed and Mr. Davis hid his smile with an almost-flawless facepalm.

"Please tell us something interesting about yourself," he said.

"Oh. I, uh, play hockey," I replied. Looking away, I quickly sat back down, forcing the person next to me into the hot-seat. Relieved, I let myself relax for a moment, feeling slightly good about navigating the first of many obstacles that this class was going to toss into my life.

And for the record, I'm sorry if I sound like I'm really freaking out about the class. I don't want you to get the wrong idea—I was_ terrified_. I suppose you don't understand where I'm coming from. I just don't do smart stuff. Probably why I'm so good at hockey—because I'm an idiot.

"And now for the surprise!" the teacher announced. Mr. Davis picked up another stack of papers off his desk and started handing it out. "We're going to have a test!"

The announcement didn't process. I, like most of the class, stared open-mouthed at the man in front of us, handing out packets of stapled white pages. As the girl in front of me passed the stack of papers back, I took one and passed the rest back. It only took the first sentence to confirm that my fate had in fact, been sealed.

_Please describe the social, political, and economic influences of students attending High School._


	2. Annabeth I

**Annabeth I**

* * *

**Monday, Day 1**

* * *

Hell. On. Square. Wheels.

This day was not going to _end_. The only interesting part so far had been in the first class, when my AP US History teacher had given us a pre-test to start the year off. It had been pretty easy but not enough to ease the drudgery that was "National Syllabus Day". There was also the kid who sat behind me, Percy or something, he was pretty funny too. But, neither of those could do much to brighten my mood though.

Now that I think about it, even the fact that I had finally returned to the East Coast couldn't make up for the complete waste of time I was now enduring. Mainly because I had to leave the West Coast behind to be here, and there's just something about San Francisco just makes Manhattan look like shit.

Maybe it was the endless summer I left behind for the crazy winter that was NYC in the latter parts of the year.

Or maybe it was the friends that I had left behind once again to accommodate my father's erratic and random career choices.

Now, I'm not one for self-pity, but things were getting to be just about perfect where I was—and then my entire world had to collapse. WTF didn't even come close to describing how I felt about all of this.

I guess it's fitting that school, what used to be my distraction from the world, had now become my living hell. Why should there be anything permanent in my life? It makes a lot more sense for everything to crumble apart and be torn to pieces.

And please, I'm being sarcastic. Mostly. But I'd be lying if I didn't say that there was a little dash of bitterness in there.

After AP History I slogged through AP English. After that? AB Calculus. AP this. AP that. My "give a shit" meter was running seriously low. Mix in a few free periods, lunch, and gym, and that was my day. When the final bell rang… oh what sweet music it was. I was out of that school faster than a broken-hearted girl running to an all-you-can-eat ice cream and chocolate buffet.

Because I was still unused to the New York public transportation system (we'd only been here a week), it took me longer than I would've liked to get home. When I reached home though, the feeling of relief that flooded through me as I entered our new apartment was indescribable. My mother and father were away at work and my brothers were still at school; they'd be there until they got picked up. Which meant that, for now, I had the whole place to myself.

Nearly running to my room, I grabbed my phone and turned it on. I thought they weren't allowed at school, but I quickly found out that the school honor code was more or less "guidelines" instead of actual rules. I also learned that if you needed anything you couldn't get inside good ole Wash-Irv, you needed to talk to one of the Stoll brothers. Whoever they were. They could basically get you whatever you needed.

Walking back into the living room, I flopped down on the couch and stared out of one of the two, large, picture windows that took up the entire wall of the lounging area. It would've been a nice touch, the windows, if they didn't look directly into the apartment across the narrow street from us. What could've been picturesque was now encouraged pedophilia.

Turning my attention back to my phone, I quickly scrolled through the contacts to find Jack's name. It didn't take long; I had just called him last night. Within seconds my phone was sending signals to the nearest cell phone tower and I was waiting in anticipation for him to answer. Jack and I had only gotten together a couple months back, right in time for me to leave. It had been one month of pure bliss and then one month of hell, being separated. After two rings, he picked up.

"Hey," Jack said. His tone was flat and weary. Immediately, sirens began to go off in my head.

"Is everything alright?" I asked, concerned.

"No, not really," he replied bluntly.

"Well, tell me about it," I said gently. "What's the root cause of all this?"

"The 'root cause' of all this is that my girlfriend, the one I worked on getting for over a year, is now three thousand miles away," he replied. Mentally, I groaned. We had been over this a lot in the past week.

"Listen, Jack," I said, trying to sound soothing. "I know this isn't going how we planned-"

"Have you ever just wanted to end it all?" Jack interrupted. His comment shocked me.

"What the hell does that mean?" I asked quickly. "You're not planning on killing yourself, are you?!"

"No!" Jack replied. "No, no, no. Okay. I phrased that wrong. Have you ever been in so much pain, that you just want to stop whatever's giving you that pain?"

It took me a few seconds to sort out what he meant. Even then, I still wasn't very sure what he was talking about.

"Jack," I asked. "What is your point?"

"Listen," he said. "We've been friends for what, two years?"

"Nineteen months and twenty four days," I replied. I heard him sigh heavily over the phone.

"Right. Nineteen months or so. After that first month of you hanging out with us, hanging out with Kelly, Katie, Josh, Dante, Molly, that's when it really struck me. About how beautiful you were. And then, not too long later, it struck me how incredible you are."

Flattering as the statement was, I had heard it all before. A few times. Still, it brought a slight smile to my face.

"And then," he continued, "It took me a full year and a half to find out that you liked me just as much as I liked you. But do you know what it was like? Those seventeen months that it took me to get there? Not knowing whether you liked me or not, whether you thought of me at all, whether this was all one sided or mutual?"

"Hey, I had those same feelings too, Jack," I said defensively. "Both of us had our obstacles-I was too afraid and you were too much of a wuss to make a move."

I smiled at the little jab I had inserted in there, right at the end, but Jack didn't bite. Instead, he sighed wearily and kept going, "Annabeth, there were days I couldn't function. So many mixed signals, so many times where I just wanted to know where I stood with you... and after all that? What's my reward? You had to move away."

"I didn't want this to happen," I replied, again, feeling defensive. "Jack-"

"It's like riding a wave," Jack interrupted. "You're out there on your board, waiting for a big one to roll in, waiting, waiting-"

"Oh don't give me that surfer bullshit," I cut in harshly.

"And when the wave finally comes in, you ride it. You go where it takes you," Jack continued, as if he hadn't heard me. "You don't try and fight the wave, telling it to go where you want it to. Doing that doesn't work and only gets you hurt from trying."

"Just say it!" I yelled at him, knowing what was coming. "Just say it, Jack. I don't want to hear all these stupid metaphors!"

"I can't do this anymore, Annabeth," Jack said softly. There was a slight tremor in his voice.

"And that's it?" I challenged fiercely. "That's how you're going to let this end?!"

"I'm not going to fight you about this," he replied calmly.

"It took seventeen months for us to get here and you're just going to let it go? You're not going to fight for this?"

I was desperate now. It had taken me a long time to get to the point where I was comfortable with this-and an even longer time to convince myself that I did want this. I remembered back to when he first told me that he really liked me and asked me if I wanted to try and take things a little bit further. How could I have refused him? He was the nicest, kindest, funniest, exciting person I had ever been around. The perfect 'surfer boy' look didn't hurt his chances either. How long it had taken me to get used to the idea. And now that I was, now that I was really starting to adjust and grow into this relationship, he was pulling the plug.

"I don't want to make this any harder than it already is," he told me, taking in a deep breath. "I guess I'll just talk to you later."

I didn't even wait for him to disconnect to throw the phone. And then I began to throw other things. When there was nothing else to throw, I just sat on the couch, trying to convince myself the wave of emotion roiling through me was anger, not hurt. I looked out of the big picture window in front of me, to see a couple of boys in the apartment across the way looking right back at me. Angry that they had been watching me, I got up and stalked moodily over to the window and forcibly closed the blinds, almost ripping them off the wall. Moodily, I sat back down on the couch, arms crossed, trying to remain angry as hell for as long as possible.

Because if I was angry, I couldn't be sad. Or by extension, hurt. The rest of the evening didn't go well either.

* * *

**A/N: A little choppy. Figured you guys wouldn't care too much, cuz your getting an update**


	3. Percy II

**A/N: So yeah... review replies... I'll reply to a few of them. To the people that leave reviews of substance, that is (those that have commented). And old friends, of course. Again, WARNING strong language is used.**

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**Percy II**

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**Monday, Day 1**

* * *

I guess it started when we got back to the apartment. I went to drop my stuff in my room while Nico and Grover chilled in the living room. Feeling hungry, I made my way to the kitchen to make a sandwich.

"Hey Percy," Grover called. "When'd ya get new neighbors?"

"Last week!" I replied, connecting the peanut butter side of the sandwich to the jelly. Walking out to the living room, I looked with Grover and Nico out the window.

"Dude, she's tweaking," Nico said, pointing out of the massive window and towards the apartment fifty feet across the street. Sure enough, the girl in the opposite apartment was tweaking hard. The familiar looking girl was throwing shit all over the place.

"Why does she look like I should know her?" I said aloud. Grover snorted.

"She sits in front of you in AP US History," he replied. The girl had just run out of things to throw. "I feel sorry for her, though."

History Girl saw us watching her and furiously shut the blinds.

"What do you mean?" I asked Grover, still staring out the windows at History Girl's apartment. I don't know why I stared, it's not like there was anything to see, with the blinds all shut.

"She was clearly having a fight with someone," Grover explained. "And based upon the facial expressions that she was giving, I'd say it was with a significant other."

"Boyfriend?" I asked, curious. Grover shrugged.

"Or girlfriend," he offered. "We live in a different world these days, Percy. Her getting it on with another girl is a real possibility."

"Lesbians?" Nico offered. "That's hot. Especially if one of them is her."

Very slowly, as if we had planned it, both Grover and I turned and looked at the younger boy; I personally gave him my best 'WTF' look of my career (life). Perfectly in sync Grover and I both threw what we were holding at him. Grover threw the magazine he had been looking at and I threw the rest of the sandwich I was eating at him. The sandwich hit him square in the face, leaving a little smudge of peanut butter and jelly.

"Agh! Your sandwich? Really?" Nico grunted, wiping his cheek.

"You're too young to be talking about those things," I lectured him. "Just be glad your sister didn't hear you say that."

I walked over to where my sandwich had fallen on the ground and picked it up.

"Percy, don't," Grover grimaced. I grinned at him and took a bite.

"What?" I asked with a smile. "Eighteen second rule, right? Plus, I live here. What's there to be worried about?"

Grover and Nico didn't say anything. Instead they looked on in horror as I continued to eat my sandwich.

"This is probably how AIDS started," Nico said quietly. Grover snorted and I rolled my eyes, making my way to my room.

"And hurry up!" Nico called after me. "You are the slowest goddamn person on the face of the earth! We were supposed to meet everyone ten minutes ago!"

"Relax!" I replied, coming out of my room with a light jacket. Summer had decided a few days ago to just stop existing and it had been a little chilly the past few days. "I'm ready. Plus, everybody knows I'm johnny-on-the-spot. I wouldn't be surprised if they planned for me being late so that I'm actually on time or something."

Grover and Nico shared a look.

"We wouldn't do that to you," Grover said, shaking his head. "That's just mean, deceiving your friends."

"You're full of shit," I told him as I lead the way out of the apartment. "Let's go."

* * *

Two movies and about twenty dollars later, I found myself squished into a booth at Romanesco's Italian Eatery. The only thing remotely Italian about this place was the food- pizza and more pizza. Italians eat pizza, right?

That didn't really matter though, because while the pizza was gone, the conversation was just starting to heat up.

"So, he sprints in the door, like, five minutes late," Grover was telling everyone. I groaned. If he was going to tell everyone about how crappy my morning was, the least he could do was get it down right.

"I was only a few seconds late," I tried to explain. Nobody was listening to me though.

"And then," Grover kept saying. "When he found out it was an AP class, he went nuts! Mr. Davis asked him what was wrong, Percy goes, 'I don't think it's possible that I should be here'."

"That's not what I said at all!" I exclaimed. "He told me that I had to score ninety-five percent or better on that test I don't remember taking to get into the class. I laughed and told him they must've mistaken my fifty-nine for a ninety-five."

"That's awesome," Will Solace breathed. "Did you really say that to your teacher?"

"Please," Nico interrupted. "What doesn't Percy say to his teachers? He told his sixth-grade math teacher that she looked like a wrinkled, old, bat lady."

The table erupted with laughter, making me slip down lower into my seat.

"Can we please talk about something else?" I pleaded.

"Nope," Connor, one of the Stoll brothers, replied. "Making fun of you is number one, easy, and number two, really fun."

"Next time we're on the ice," I told him, "You're going into the boards."

"Bring it, fancyboy," Connor grinned. "There's a reason why my brother and I are the goons of the team."

"Ugh. Please," Katie Gardner, a "friend" of Travis's interrupted. "You guys ALWAYS talk about hockey."

"Yeah, let's change the topic," Travis agreed readily. "Did anyone else think that movie sucked?"

Grover and I exchanged looks. He knew that I knew what he was thinking. Travis always agreed to whatever Katie wanted to do. It was pathetic, really. Pathetic and funny to watch, mainly because it ended up backfiring on him. Like right now, for instance.

"You told me you thought it was a good movie!" Katie accused him, turning a little in her seat. "When the movie ended, I said that I thought it was pretty good and you replied, 'movie of the year'!"

"Is that what he told you?" Connor said, grinning. "Because he was faking throwing up a few times to me."

Travis gave his brother a look that should've killed him. Connor, unaffected, smiled back at his brother with his eyebrows raised.

"I swear to god, Connor, you are not going to survive the night," Travis said to his brother. Katie hit him.

"No violence!" she barked. "Say you're sorry. He's your brother!"

"Sorry, Connor," Travis mumbled. His brother waggled a finger in his ear.

"What's that? You're going to have to speak up."

Travis grabbed his brother's head and yelled into his ear, "A THOUSAND PARDONS, MY DEAR BROTHER. PLEASE FIND IT WITHIN YOURSELF TO FORGIVE ME."

Katie rolled her eyes and just about everyone else laughed. Connor rubbed his ear. I, however, had seen all of this before, so I decided to look around the semi-empty restaurant. Over in front of the door stood Bianca di Angelo, Nico's sister, and Thalia Grace; they were talking just outside to someone in a blue Yankees jacket and hat. After a few moments, the girl left and they came inside.

"Over here!" I called, waving a hand. Thalia rolled her eyes.

"Right, Percy," she said back. "Because I couldn't tell where you guys were sitting at all."

I felt my face heat up. "Shut up," I mumbled. Bianca offered me a 'sorry' smile. For that reason, she was and is my favorite cousin.

"Who were you talking to?" Grover asked as the pair pulled up some chairs.

"Old friend of mine," Thalia replied. "Annabeth Chase. Knew her from way back in the day when I lived in Virgina. Turns out she lives here now."

"Who?" I asked. Grover nudged me.

"She sits in front of you in AP US History. And lives across the street from you."

"Oh," I said. "You mean History Girl."

"Is that the one who's a lesbian?" Nico interrupted. The entire restaurant seemed to go silent all at once.

"What did you just say?" Bianca asked, menacing look on her face. Nico gulped, clearly nervous.

"Grover said she was a lesbian!"

"What?" Grover squeaked. "No I didn't! Percy, back me up here!"

I grinned. "If I remember correctly, Nico, it was YOU who brought up lesbians. Said something about lesbians being 'hot'."

"Yeah buddy!" the Stoll brothers cheered. "Way to go Nico!"

Bianca's look was murderous. "We're going to talk about this later."

"Fuck," Nico muttered, his head falling forwards. The rest of the group just laughed at him.

"So why were you guys so late?" Will asked, turning the attention away from Nico. Thalia groaned theatrically and dove into her story.

"Well, I knew there was no way in hell we were going to meet you guys for the movie," Thalia began to explain. "But then the subways were a mess, and you have no idea what went down on our way over here..."

* * *

**A/N: Note on reviews... If it's one or two words long... probs not going to reply to it. If you comment, I'll comment on your comment... if I deem it worthy, lol. Don't leave a review at all and I'll never have the pleasure of meeting you. Reviews are nice, sure, but that's how I'm going to approach it. Thanks for reading.**


	4. Annabeth II

**Annabeth II**

* * *

**Wednesday, Day 3**

* * *

It was day three of Hell. Or, as the rest of the world called it, "Wednesday".

Life wasn't actually as bad as I'm making it out to be... it's just that if I started to say that things weren't that bad, it would mean that I was starting to like it here.

Which I was not.

Today was shaping up to be an interesting day, though. As I walked into my AP US History class, I noticed (much to my annoyance) that the kid who normally sat behind me, Percy, was sitting in my chair. And even worse, he appeared to be fast asleep. Rolling my eyes, I moved to the seat behind him and sat down. I wasn't about to go confronting people about something as trivial as taking my seat. To tell you the truth, I wasn't even sure why he was here so early today; if the past two days had been any indication of the rest of the year, he was going to be late every day. But no, here he was, unpredictably early. Sighing in frustration, I glanced over towards the door just in time to see Percy's curly haired friend walk in. As he assessed the unusual arraignment, he raised an eyebrow.

"Don't you normally...?" He pointed at the seat in front of me.

"Yes," I replied with a barely detectable hint of annoyance.

"Well, then allow me," the boy (Grover?) smiled, giving his buddy a rough shake.

"What!?" the black-haired lump mumbled. Grover laughed.

"Percy," Grover explained, "You fell asleep in the wrong chair."

The boy sat up and looked sleepily around. His sleepy eyes landed on me and I unfolded one of my arms to give him a little wave.

"Why is History Girl in my seat?" Percy asked Grover. I nearly choked on my spit. History Girl?! Grover shot me a reassuring glance.

"Because you're in HER seat, drooling all over HER desk," he told Percy.

"Sorry," Grover said, turning to me. "He doesn't wake up very well."

"Sorry," Percy said, just a few seconds after his friend. "I'm a little spacey. I don't wake up very well."

"I've gathered as much," I told him, offering a somewhat pained smile.

"I'm not normally this tired; I was up late last night reading for this class," Percy explained. "I'm legally dyslexic and a bit ADHD. Reading and I aren't exactly Facebook friends."

"I know," I told him. "You were still up by the time I went to bed at eleven."

Percy's eyes narrowed semi-sleepily. "How do you know that?"

"You live right across the street from me," I explained, giving him my best 'duh' look.

"So you were eyes-dropping on me?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "Hmm. Don't know how I feel about that."

"Eyes-dropping?"

"Yeah," Percy explained easily. "It's like eavesdropping except with your eyes. I just made that word up. But, whatever it is, apparently you were doing it."

"Sorry Annabeth," Grover explained, leaning in towards us, "When Percy wakes up, he is either grumpy or very stream-of-conscious. Right now is a good example of the latter. It is at this time when you will hear him say the stupidest things that come to his mind."

"Oh," I replied.

"But at least I'm not eyesdropping," Percy continued, smiling slightly.

"I was just returning the favor," I told him. "Since you guys were going all pedophile on me on Monday."

"Monday?" Percy asked. He turned to Grover, "Monday?"

"Lesbian," Grover explained. Percy nodded his head.

"Oh, gotcha."

There was a quick moment of silence.

"_WHAT_?" I asked, half-confused and half-indignant.

"Our friend thinks you're a lesbian," Percy explained.

"_What_?" I said, indicating once again my displeasure and giving Percy my best 'WTF' look.

"Hey, It's fine if you are!" Percy said, raising his hands in a gesture of non-violence.

"But I'm not!" I replied forcefully.

"But if you were," Percy continued, "It's okay. We're open-minded."

"I'm not a lesbian!" i insisted rather loudly. _THAT_ earned me a few looks from my other classmates. Groaning, I let my head hit the desk-top.

"Well," Percy chirped sleepily, rubbing one eye. "Glad we got that cleared up! I'm sure a few people will be happy to know that."

"Oh yeah?" I narrowed my eyes dangerously. "Who? Why?"

"Most of the male population at Wash-Irv, and for obvious reasons I suppose," Percy shrugged. Grover shot him a look. "What?"

"Just...shut up," Grover said. The bell rang, underlining his comment. Percy turned back around and faced the front as Mr. Davis walked into the room.

"Morning class!" The teacher greeted us happily. A few people mumbled replies. "Guess what I have for you?"

Without even waiting for a response, he whipped out a stack of familiar-looking papers. Before he mentioned anything, I knew he had graded our tests.

"I have your grades!" Mr. Davis proclaimed happily. Interest sparked around the room. In front of me, Percy groaned.

"Take yours off the top, and then pass it back," the enthusiastic teacher instructed us, handing out a pile to the first desk of every row. Anxious, I nearly ripped the stack of papers out of

Percy's hands and looked at my test, absent-mindedly handing the rest of the stack to the person behind me. Scanning the front page, I frowned. At the very top of the front page, there was a big red, 'C+'.

"What?" I said to myself quietly, quickly thumbing through the test paper. I didn't remember writing down all those answers...

"This isn't my test," Percy announced. "It can't be. I have an 'A' for a grade."

Percy's comment made me stop and think for a second. Flipping to the first page, I looked at the name and sure enough, scrawled along the top of the page was the name, "Percy Jackson".

"That's because I have yours," I told him. "Here, switch."

Percy gave me my test back and grabbed his. "This still isn't my test. It has a "C" on it."

A few people laughed. "Yes, yes, we knooooow," Grover sighed with mock annoyance. "We know, we know. You suck at everything, we know."

"Everything alright?" Mr. Davis asked, sauntering over towards us. Looking up, I noticed that he was looking at me with that "I'd like a response' face.

"Yes, everything's fine," I told him. "Percy and my tests got mixed up is all."

"Right," Mr. Davis replied. "Well, that's because I was under the impression that your seat was right here," he pointed to where Percy sat. "And Percy's seat was right here," he added, pointing to where I was sitting.

"That's my fault," Percy said. "I just can't get enough history, so I stole her seat to get closer to the action."

Grover snorted. Mr. Davis cocked his head to the side, giving Percy an 'oh really?' look. "Well, we can move your desk up to the chalkboard if you want..."

A few people laughed and Percy looked a bit flustered at his bluff being called. "No, it's fine," he replied. "I don't want to overdose or anything. Not this early in the semester, at least."

"Fair enough," Mr. Davis continued. "If you would all turn to the front page of the test, we will now go over the answers."

* * *

It was late. Shuffling all the papers together, I neatly stacked them in my folder. The homework wasn't due until later next week but that didn't really matter. It wasn't hard and it wasn't like I had anything else to do. Once I had everything squared away, I leaned back and yawned, stretching my arms lazily over my head. Turning to my window, I looked out at Manhattan. Almost instantly, my eyes were drawn towards Percy's apartment.

Now, I don't want it to sound like I spent hours spying into his home—but when you have a gigantic window taking up most of your outside wall and another, equally gigantic window fifty feet away from you, it's hard to look anywhere else. The light was on in Percy's room but he wasn't in there. I looked more to the left; I could see some activity in the kitchen. I was about to turn away when shapes started to move about the living room. It was Percy and his mom.

He was pushing her out of the kitchen (assuming that his apartment had the same layout as mine), and he made her sit down on the couch. He pointed something at the windows and the living room was bathed in an eerie blue-white light.

_The television_, I thought. Taking a blanket, I watched Percy drape it over his mom and leave, heading back to the kitchen. Intrigued, I left my room, to see if I could find out what he was doing.

Since our apartments were apparently mirror images of each other, I went over to my kitchen, to look out the big window there. My own apartment was dark—it was almost ten-thirty. Everyone was probably asleep.

"Annabeth, is that you?" came a voice. My step-mom. "What are you doing up this late?"

"Just getting a glass of water," I replied, rolling my eyes. Being true to my word, I grabbed a glass from the cabinet and filled it from the tap. I stared out of the window over the kitchen sink, sipping my water. I could make out Percy doing something at his own sink… washing dishes? His mom re-entered the room and he turned quickly, pushing her back out.

_He's making her relax,_ I realized. _He's making her stop doing the dishes and watch some television._

Guiltily, I looked at the glass in my hand. Half-filled with water, it was officially 'dirty'. In the American-suburban sense of the word, 'dirty'. Some of my friends back in Cali would use dishes two or three times before washing them—I always thought that was a little sickening though. My analytic brain just couldn't get past the different kinds of bacteria that were probably growing on the cutlery.

The kitchen I was standing in was spotless. A testament to my neat-freak step-mother. To her, this glass was 'dirty'. Therefore, placing it next to the sink would be creating work for her to do. I'd never thought twice about such a thing before. Looking up, I watched as Percy slaved away in front of his own sink. Reluctantly, I grabbed the scrubbing pad and dish soap, made quick work of the cup, and placed it upside-down in the drying rack. Without another glance, I made my way back to my room, turned out the light, and went to bed.


	5. Percy III

**Percy III**

* * *

**Friday, Day 5**

* * *

To tell you the truth, I don't really remember this week passing at all. Back in the day, I used to pay attention to how the days went by but now I just kind of floated along like a stick down a river. The days came and went, and the only real focus that I had was on what I had to get done for tomorrow. So when Friday showed up, I was pretty surprised. The good kind of surprise, that is. Like, 'Wait, the end is near? the end is near!' kind of happy-surprised.

The other interesting detail of my life recently was that I was on time to school, and to my first class.

And by on time, I mean early.

It all started as an accident, really; I accidentally set my alarm for an hour earlier than what time I had actually wanted to get up. And when it did go off, I didn't even pause to look at the clock, conditioned as I was for being late. As I usually had to do, I got up and dressed as quickly as I could. It wasn't til after I was showered and dressed that the clock in the kitchen informed me that carrots had better alarm clock-setting skills than I did. At that point, though, there was no turning back. On the plus side, I got to leisurely go around my business that morning, and I kind of liked it. A lot. So I started to do it some more. And then something else happened. Being on time, I actually got to do things, like talk to people. Who knew that History Girl, Annabeth, was such an interesting person? Or that she liked staring into my apartment?

Haha, just kidding about that last part. But for real; it was interesting to know that she did.

Anyways, Friday. After giving it much thought, I've figured out that this was the Friday that I figured it all out. Let's just call it 'Eureka Friday'. I couldn't tell you the exact reason for this day being the 'day of Revelation', but I can remember the moment that I first thought what I first thought.

About Annabeth, I mean. I can remember the first moment that I first thought something about Annabeth.

Other than her being a person, I guess.

Shit. I'm kind of repeating myself, aren't I? Maybe I should just tell you what happened. And by the way, everything that happened was all Annabeth's fault, really. You'll understand after you hear the story.

* * *

I was one of the first ones in the room, again, but this time I was wide awake. I kind of had one of those anticipation things going on-where you meet a really interesting person with charisma (like that word? Yeah! I'm not a complete moron) and you just want to talk to them again. I think people call it, 'hitting it off' with someone. Anyways, there's me, sitting all antsy and stuff, waiting for someone to talk to, when History Girl-Annabeth-waltzes into the room.

And at that moment, I guess I should have seen it coming.

Hair-straightened, she was wearing this loose-fitting grey long sleeve t-shirt deal with the sleeves that only went up to just past her elbows. Side note-why do girls wear such weird things like that? Do they have something against the rest of the sleeve?

Anyways, she was also wearing white shorts.

White shorts.

We'll speak more on this topic later.

"Still sitting in my seat?" She asked, grinning a little. I pretended to look confused.

"Your seat?" I asked. "This isn't your seat. I switched our desks."

"What?" Annabeth asked, giving me this, 'if-you-really-did-that-you're-kind-of-weird' look. "Really?"

I smiled at her. "Nope!"

"Good," she replied, setting her bag down and taking the seat behind me. "Because if you did... let's just say that normal people don't do that."

"Who's normal?" I snorted. "I can definitely tell you that I am anything BUT normal. I'm actually probably the weirdest person you're ever going to meet."

"Oh, really?" Annabeth raised her eyebrows. I saw the corners of her mouth turn upwards slightly as she replied, "I hadn't noticed."

Grover walked in-between us, sitting down in his usual spot. "'Sup, guys."

"Hey," Annabeth and I replied.

"Early again?" Grover asked, looking at me. "What's the deal?"

"Early?" I asked indignantly. "What do you mean, 'what's the deal'? I'm always on time!"

"He even beat me here," Annabeth told Grover, as if I hadn't said anything. The bell rang, cutting off any further discussion as we all turned to face the front of the class. Mr. Davis was looking at us expectantly.

"Let's talk about the reading, shall we?" he said. "And then I'll explain the little project I have for you to do this weekend."

* * *

True to his word, Mr. Davis had a hefty set of papers for us to finish for Tuesday.

"Everyone come up to the front to put together your homework papers!" Mr. Davis yelled over the noise of the classroom. I looked over at Grover.

"I don't think I'm going to survive," I breathed. Grover reached over and patted me on the shoulder.

"You'll be okay," he assured me. While he was still holding onto my shoulder, Annabeth got up.

"Excuse me, guys," she said, trying to sneak past us. Grover quickly withdrew his hand.

"Sorry about that," he apologized.

"You're fine," Annabeth assured him, passing us by and making her way to the front of the room. Grover got up as well, to follow her.

"Wanna grab me one?" I asked. Grover nodded that he would.

It was while everyone was getting homework packets when it struck me. Annabeth got up to the table, leaned over, and grabbed the first homework paper. As she did so, she smiled at something someone said. She flashed her pearly-whites in reply, looking at the person with a playful smile. You know, I really can't describe the WHAT about the situation that struck me, other than that was IT. That was the moment where it all happened, the 'Eureka' moment.

I dunno. Maybe it was the way her white shorts (my personal weakness) contrasted with her long, tanned legs. Or, now that I think about it, it could've been how she smiled-her face surrounded by a curtain of golden blonde hair; her loose, gray, top gently outlining her desirables...

"You know," I mentioned to Grover (who handed me a set of homework papers), "I haven't noticed it before until now, but Annabeth... damn!"

Grover looked up real quick from his assignment, "Yeah. Whoever gets her dressed in the morning does a pretty good job at it."

"Understatement of the year," I muttered, staring again. I'm not going to be embarrassed about it-I was staring at her butt. How could I not? Not only was she wearing the kryptonite-white shorts but she kept leaning over, and the shorts just stood out so well against her long, long, long, tan, tan, tan, legs...

_Shit_, I thought. _She's really_... _I think I want to get to know her better._

Annabeth turned around, catching me in the act. I just continued to just stared at her, lost in her... _Annabeth-ness_. I didn't stare very obviously, though. I played it off as one of those staring-with-lost-expression-zoning-out kind of things.

"What?" Annabeth said, smiling self-consciously. I shook my head theatrically, as if I was coming out of a trance. Being Percy has its benefits.

"Huh?" I asked, making sure to sound genuinely confused. "What? Sorry, I was trying to figure out how I'm going to survive this homework."

"Oh," she replied, sitting back down. "I guess that explains the 'Oh my god', look you had on your face."

_Heh_, I chuckled in my head. _If only you knew._ As if on cue, Grover snorted.

"What?" Annabeth asked. Grover shook his head.

"Nothing."

* * *

Fast forward, like, twelve hours.

Or maybe only ten. I don't know. I was sitting at my desk, trying to make sense of my math homework.

Yeah, I know. What was I doing, looking at math homework, or any homework, on Friday?

Well, short answer is that I had to work a lot this weekend, and didn't know when else I was going to get it done. And speaking of work, according to my clock, it was time for me to get ready to get going. Standing up, I went to the window to draw my drapes so that I could get changed. As I did, though, I saw some activity going on, fifty feet across the street. Two people were sitting on the fire-escape; one was stepping out of a window onto the fire escape. Annabeth?

I looked closer; it WAS Annabeth. And some girl with spiky hair and a black leather jacket; that one was easy, it was Thalia. If you had been her friend for a while, like I had, you'd know it was her too. Which meant the last one was Bianca. I'd bet money that it was.

As I watched them sneak down the fire-escape, I felt a little jealous. They were free to do whatever the wanted with the night, which knowing Thalia, involved going to a party. It didn't feel fair, having to work while everyone else I knew got to live life.

_Well_, I thought to myself. _Life sucks sometimes. Maybe I should start getting used to that_.

And with that uplifting thought, I changed into my work clothes and jogged to catch the bus.

* * *

**A/N: I'll reply to some of the reviews this weekend. Hope you enjoyed!**


	6. Annabeth III

**Annabeth III**

* * *

**Friday, Day 5**

* * *

If Thalia hadn't come and got me, I probably would've gone insane. Earlier that night, I'd locked myself in my room, in a desperate attempt to avoid my oh-so-frustrating family. Then, about an hour later, the homework ran out.

Now, don't get the wrong impression. I'm not a homework-aholic. I just get stuff done on time. And when you're trying to hide from your family, you use every excuse you have. Luckily, though, Thalia called me right as boredom was about to set in.

"Hello?" I asked, answering the phone. At the time, I didn't recognize the number.

"Hey, Annabeth," a familiar voice on the other line said. "It's me, Thalia."

"Oh, hey!" I grinned, happy to talk to someone. "What's up?"

"Not a whole lot," Thalia replied. "What are you doing tonight?"

"Nothing anymore," I said, picking at the edges of my notebook paper. "My Friday night just opened up big time."

"That's what I was hoping you'd say," Thalia said. "Want to sneak out and hang?"

I swallowed nervously. "Sneak out?"

"Yeah!" Thalia said excitedly. "Just like old times."

A wave of nostalgia hit me like a ton of bricks. _Just like old times,_ I thought. I looked at my door. Sneaking out would also piss my step-mom off something wonderful, if she found out. "Where do you want to meet up?"

I could practically hear Thalia grinning. "How about I meet you at your apartment? And then we'll go to Bianca's for a bit."

"Sounds good to me," I said. "Should I wear anything?"

"Nah, don't worry about it," Thalia replied. "We'll figure that out later at Bianca's. See you in ten minutes."

"Alright, bye."

I put the phone down and looked out the window anxiously. The light in Percy's window caught my eye; Percy was hunched over his desk, working hard on something. Probably homework. According to his reputation, which I only had a vague idea of, this was not something normal for him to do.

"So why are you all different all of a sudden?" I wondered aloud. The curiosity lasted all of five seconds and I turned to my bed and flopped down, deciding to close my eyes for a few seconds. After a while, my phone rang.

"Yeah?" I asked, not even looking at the caller.

"Which one is yours?" the voice on the other line asked. Thalia.

"I'm in the apartment building across from Percy's," I explained. "Right by the fire escape."

"Oh," Thalia replied. "Okay, be right up."

"Don't worry," I told her. "I'll come to you."

Ending the call, I grabbed a jacket (just to be safe) and went to the window, hefting it open. Right as I did, Thalia's face popped into view.

"What's up, girl?" She smiled. "How do you know Percy?"

"Percy?" I asked. "He lives right there and he's in one of my classes."

I pointed right across the street from me, to where Percy's room was, fifty feet away. Thalia looked across to where I was pointing.

"Whoa," she said. "Your guys' apartments are totally made for creepers."

"Tell me about it," I said, swinging a foot onto the fire escape. "You can see right into their rooms."

"So, basically, that's what you've been doing with your free time," Thalia said from below me as she started to climb down. I shut my window gently.

"Yes, yes, because I have nothing better to do than creep on people I hardly know," I replied, my voice dripping with sarcasm. "Hey, Bianca!"

"Hey, Annabeth," the other girl replied. "I like your apartment."

"Aw, Thanks," I replied, feet touching the cold concrete of the sidewalk. "It feels like a prison, but its home."

Thalia laughed and Bianca smiled, a bit unsure of how to react. "I'm sure it's not that bad," Bianca replied.

* * *

"You live here?!"

I stared up at the skyscraper. Bianca shrugged.

"Yeah," she said simply. "It's just an apartment."

"Penthouse apartment," Thalia muttered, mostly to herself. Bianca swiped a card, apparently unbothered by Thalia and my reactions. She was right, though. It _was_ just an apartment; just a place to sleep.

Bianca led the way into the building and into the elevator. When we were encased in the metal shell of the vertical transport device, Bianca waved her ID in front of another sensor and the elevator rumbled to life.

"That's pretty neat," I said dorkishly. Thalia looked at me out of the corner of her eye and Bianca snorted. "What? Chill Thals, I'm just goofing around."

"Some things just don't change, I guess," Thalia replied, grinning. I gave her a light shove.

"So what's the plan?" I asked, looking over at Bianca. The brown-haired girl shrugged.

"What do you guys want to do?" She asked. "We could chill here, go get something to eat, explore the city..."

"Rachel's having a party tonight," Thalia said quickly. She looked from me to Bianca, judging our reactions. Bianca shrugged her shoulders.

"That's fine with me," she said. The two looked at me.

"I'm fine with that," I said, actually feeling pretty nervous about the whole deal. "But am I dressed okay?"

Thalia rolled her eyes (Like I was really asking her anyways). Bianca looked me over, thinking.

"I have a shirt that would probably fit you," she said. "If you want it, that is. You look fine, though. These parties aren't exactly high-society kind of things; it's just a bunch of people getting together to dance and have fun."

The elevator stopped, bringing us to a short hallway with one door. With another wave of the ID card, the door opened, and we stepped into Bianca's apartment. The first thing that struck me was the sleek, modern, almost spartan look. Everything was black, off-white/grey, glass, or obsidian. The entry hall was tastefully minimalist.

"Let me go check on my brother real quick," Bianca said, walking briskly down the hall and into the living room. Thalia and I followed.

"Whoa," I whispered to Thalia, who nodded. "It's obvious... the money... but not 'in your face' about it."

"Yeah," Thalia whispered back. "One of the reasons why Bianca is basically the best friend I've ever had."

I pretended to pout. "Oh really? Thanks a lot!"

"Shut up," Thalia said, pushing me. We got to the living room, behind Bianca, who was busy talking with her brother.

"So you're going to be here all night?"

The living room was much like the entry hall, black and minimal. A large eighty-inch television screen took up much of the far wall; Bianca's brother sat in front of it playing one of those fighting video games that guys like so much.

"Connor, cover me," Nico replied. The figure on the screen ran out into the middle of a courtyard. There was a sound of gunfire and the screen started to tint a reddish color.

"Nico!" Bianca said loudly. There was an explosion on the screen and using deductive logic, I figured that Nico's character had just died. The words "Red wins" flashed upon the screen.

"Arrgg!" Nico said loudly. "Shut up guys, it's not my fault! Bianca's yelling at me!"

He whipped around to look at his sister, ripping off of his headphones in the process. "What the hell do you want, B?"

"Don't use that tone of voice with me!" Bianca retorted. "I'm trying to find out where you're going to be tonight!"

"God! I'm just going to stay here, _MOM_." Nico yelled back. The two siblings stared at each other and I watched the anger disappear from Nico's face.

"Bianca, I'm sorry," he said, getting up.

"Nico, you promised you wouldn't say that anymore," Bianca said stonily.

"I got mad," he said apologetically, wrapping his arms around her. "I'm trying to control myself, really."

"I'll forgive you for now," Bianca sighed, returning the embrace. "Thalia, Annabeth, and I are going out in a bit. If you need anything, I'll have my phone on me. Call me if you are going anywhere, okay?"

"Okay," Nico said. He gave us a quick glance and went back to his game.

"Would you guys settle down?" he yelled, talking into his headset again. "I was talking to Bianca. Her and her friends are going somewhere."

Bianca motioned for us to follow her.

"Who cares, Connor? It's just Thalia and the new lesbian girl," Nico said as we left. "Are we going to play or not?"

The comment hit me right as I was leaving the room. I whipped around, looking at him, "I'm NOT a lesbian, you little shit!"

Nico, startled, whipped around and glanced at me with a look of fear. Thalia grabbed my shoulder and pulled me away.

"Stop laughing," I said, shaking off Thalia's grip. "This is starting to get annoying!"

"Oh, don't worry," Bianca said. "Nobody really thinks or cares if you're a lesbian."

"And even if you were," Thalia said. "It would just make you hotter than you already are. For some reason, it's a real turn-on for guys."

"Whatever," I said, brushing off their comments. "Let's just do this."

* * *

An hour later, the three of us were ready to go. Bianca and I got a little bit more dressed up, but Thalia just kept wearing what she already had on. She had that whole 'punk' thing going on anyways. Hair spiked, various piercings... if you could translate from "fashion" into English what her clothes were trying to say, it'd be something like, 'F-U'.

"Let's get some food!" Thalia said, leading the way out the door.

"Nico, we're leaving," Bianca called. There was a muffled, 'okay!' from the living room. We left the apartment, and Bianca took us down to the parking garage, where we got into her black Mercedes SUV.

"Where are we going?" I asked. Thalia, who had grabbed shotgun, turned to look back at me.

"Steak and Shake," she grinned.

"Steak and Shake?" I asked.

"Steak and Shake," Thalia replied. "You'll see when we get there."

When we did get there, I did see the reason why. Or at least I think I understood why we were there. When we walked in, we were greeted by none other than Percy Jackson.

"Hello, welcome to Steak-" he paused when he realized who it was. "Oh hey, guys. What do you want?"

"The usual," Thalia said airily. "Annabeth, what do you want?"

"I don't really know," I said. "I'm not really hungry..."

"Relax," Thalia said. "Get whatever you want, it's all free."

"Really?" I asked. "I guess I'll just have some French fries, then."

"To go, right?" Percy asked. Thalia nodded.

"Right."

"Okay, ten minutes, guys," Percy said. "Take a seat while you wait."

He went around the counter to place the order. Thalia left as well, saying something about using the bathroom. Bianca and I took a seat in the booth near the door.

"Hey Bianca," I asked, feeling uneasy and thinking of the complete lack of currency in my pocket. "This is free, right?"

"Well," she said, looking uncomfortable. "Technically, yes. Why?"

"Because I think Percy just rang up our order on the cash register," I said, pointing. Bianca turned and looked, sighing as she watched Percy pull a wad of money out of his pocket and put it into the cash register.

"Yeah, I know, he does that," Bianca replied, getting out her small purse. "Thalia thinks we get it for free, but he's been paying for us for the past year or so. I force him to take money sometimes, like right now."

Bianca took a wad of twenties out of her purse and counted them. I glanced at the bills as she sorted them out- ten twenty-dollar bills. She put the wad back in her purse and grabbed the twenties.

"I'll be right back," she said, getting up. I watched her walk over to the cash register in her sexy black dress and proceed to force Percy to take the money. To Percy's credit, he gave a good fight. But, as I was beginning to learn, nobody could withstand Bianca's will when she wanted something done. Percy relented, took the money, and grabbed her for a hug.

"Victory?" I asked, watching Bianca make her way back to the booth with our order. The pretty brunette smiled and nodded.

"That's quite the tip," I went on. Bianca shrugged.

"It'll cover us for the next few visits," she replied. "Besides, he needs the money. It's not very easy for him and his mom right now."

I didn't say anything. Luckily, Thalia saved us from having to talk about the topic and took this opportunity to make her re-appearance.

"Sweet, we got the food already?" Thalia asked. "Let's go to Rachel's!"

The three of us piled into the car and went on our way. As we ate our food on the way over, I started to feel more and more excited about the night ahead of us.

* * *

I didn't really know what to expect, going to this girl _Rachel's_ apartment. Bianca and Thalia also failed to mention, until we pulled up to the giant building, that it was _Rachel Elizabeth Dare's_ penthouse. You know, the heiress of Dare Enterprises, the seventh richest company in the world. After finding out all of that, I threw my expectations out of the window.

The apartment was dark, except for a few laser-lights and the occasional strobe. If I didn't know any better, I would've guessed that we had just stepped into a club.

"Hey guys," a girl said, walking up to us. She had red hair and was wearing the most interesting dress I'd ever seen on anyone except for Lady Gaga.

"Hey Rachel," Thalia and Bianca said. "Lot of people tonight?"

"Eh," Rachel shrugged. "About the same."

They talked for a bit, but I was completely lost in the sight. _This is where somebody lives? _

"You look a little lost," A voice said from next to me. Rachel.

"This is where you live?" I asked. Rachel shrugged.

"It looks different during the day," she smiled. "Come on, I'll show you around."

We went through several rooms and Rachel pointed out the highlights. There was the bathroom, the game room, the lounge, the dance floor, the hallway that led to the bedrooms (guarded by a big-looking security guard), another living room, two more bathrooms, and a second dance floor. We finally stopped at the larger of the two kitchens.

"Want something to drink?" Rachel asked, gesturing to a plethora of bottles, cups, and cans. A bartender stood behind the bar, seemingly waiting for my instruction.

"Alcohol?" I asked, trying to keep the surprise out of my voice. Rachel stopped and looked at me.

"Yeah," she said. "But if you drink, you have to stay the night. The floor underneath us is mine too; it's got a lot of bedrooms and bathrooms for that specific purpose. Do you want to?"

"What?" I asked. "Drink?"

Rachel nodded.

"Do Thalia and Bianca-"

"Fuck them," Rachel interrupted. "And I mean that in the most respectful way possible. This isn't about them, Annabeth. What do _YOU_ want to do?"

I looked at the bottles of drinks and the cups of alcohol. Inside my mind, a battle of epic proportions was being waged.

_Do I, or don't I? _I thought. Half of me wanted to... and the other half was saying _NO! NO! NO!_

"This is _your _choice," Rachel said. "The first one of your life. Nobody's forcing you to do anything. Nobody's telling you to do anything. Not me, not your parents, not your friends. Just. You."

I stared at the drinks, my mind going a thousand miles a second.

"Make your choice on the direction you want to take _your_ life."

After one more second of hesitation, I reached for a cup and didn't look back.


	7. Percy IV

**Percy IV**

* * *

**Monday, Day 8**

* * *

I did not wake up early on Monday.

And I didn't wake up well either.

When I did open my eyes, I didn't move fast. Sluggishly, I went through the motions of getting ready. I think my mother expected this because, when I finally emerged from my room to leave for school, she handed me a large breakfast smoothie with plenty of fruit, yogurt and other healthy crap in it. Good thing, too, because eating hadn't even registered in my mind.

Somehow I caught the right bus and somehow I got to school seconds before the final bell rang. I didn't even bother trying to make my class on time. Don't worry, I didn't.

The only bright spot was that when I forced myself up the stairs, there wasn't any familiar burning sensation from over-used and tired muscles. But that would soon change; pre-season was about to begin for Ice Hockey. Pre-season meant cross-training, weight-training, and general beat-you-into-the-ground training. It eventually grew into specific beat-you-into-the-ground training, but that was later in the year.

Walking into the AP Us History classroom, I snuck over to my seat. I had warned him this would happen. Today wasn't bad; only about three minutes late. Mr. Davis was very understanding about it.

"Just as long as you're here," he had replied. "And not too late, either. I'll give you a five-minute buffer."

The class was busily grouped into twos and threes, reading a handout. I shuffled over to my desk next to Grover; Annabeth, having got here first, had apparently reclaimed her old seat. Whatever.

"And so the zombie arrives," Grover smiled. "Why so tired? Doesn't hockey start next week?"

"Graveyard shift," I replied. "_That_ started last Friday. Which means I have a week to get used to that before adding hockey on top of that."

"I forgot about that," Grover replied, handing me a sheet. "Now help me with this. We have to read this guy's article and compare it to this other one."

Grover held up a different handout, already with a few annotations on it.

"How about I read the shorter one," I said, "And you can finish the longer one. Then we'll tell each other what happened."

"Okay," my friend replied. I took my two handouts and studied them. One single-page behometh and one two-paged monster. Double sided.

"Ahh, my old enemy," I said. "Words and sentences... we meet again."

"Shut up and get going, Dr. Dyslexic," Grover replied. Having no real comeback, and feeling the stare of Mr. Davis boring into me, I did just that. It wasn't even that hard, considering my dyslexia. I even managed to finish in time to compared notes with Grover, just before class discussion to began.

* * *

The rest of the day went about the same. Enter class, zombie through class (minus the whole feasting on human beings part), go to the next one. Luckily for me, I had friends in every period, something that made every hour somewhat bearable.

"Sleep," I had told Nico during physics. "What I wouldn't give for a bottle of sleep right now."

"What I wouldn't give for you to shut up and measure this angle of refraction," Nico countered. "Come on, Perce. It's the easiest lab assignment of the year. Just measure the stupid angle."

I muttered something about slave-drivers and did as he asked.

Relief came in the form of school ending. When the bell rang, life began to brighten, in more ways than one.

You see, on my way out of the school, I ran into none other than Annabeth Chase.

—Real quick, though, there is something you must know about the _zombie-lack-of-sleep-adjusting-to-new-sleep-schedu le_ form of existing. It has a severe effect on my "give-a-shit" meter and causes it to drop to all-time low levels of giving no shits. It is at these times that I am most likely to speak my mind.

"Whoa, sorry," I drawled, apologizing for running into her. When I said that I ran into Annabeth Chase, I wasn't kidding.

"You scared the crap out of me!" Annabeth replied. She took a moment to stare at me, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, don't worry," I replied. "I didn't hurt myself."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "That's not what I meant. I mean that you look like crap."

"Oh, this?" I said, pulling on my Washington Irving sweater-vest. "I know it's not Gucci or anything, but its all I can afford."

"That's not what I meant," Annabeth groaned. I yanked open the door and we exited the school, heading for the street. "Don't you ever give people straight answers?"

"Sometimes," I grinned, pulling off to the left. "Depends on the moment, really."

"Where are you going?" Annabeth frowned.

"Home?"

"But the bus stop is that way," The blonde-haired girl said, pointing to the right. I wrinkled my nose.

"Yeah, the bus stop for dumb people," I said. Annabeth gave another one of her quickly becoming famous eye-rolls and sighed.

"So where are you going, then?" she asked. I smiled.

"To the secret bus stop."

Without waiting for her to follow me, I turned and kept walking. Annabeth appeared by my side in seconds.

"You see," I told her, "If you just walk around the corner, you save five minutes of standing on the bus."

"Standing?" Annabeth asked. I nodded my head, giving her an 'oh sure!' kind of look.

"Trust me. You don't want to sit if you can help it. This is New York City."

Annabeth gave me a disgusted look and I laughed. Then I yawned. Did I mention that I was tired?

"What the hell was that?" Annabeth asked.

"Well, first I laughed," I explained. "And then I yawned. Because I'm tired."

"Why are you so tired?" Annabeth asked. I felt immediately uneasy. Annabeth was unknowingly trying to cross from one world, to the next.

Perhaps I should explain.

My life consists of a lot of different worlds in which I have different… ways of acting. I don't know how else to explain it, other than this; in the world of Hockey, I had hockey friends, with whom I talked about hockey things. In school, I had school friends and facebook friends with whom I talked about school things. Very few people existed in my personal world, the one that contained my personal life. Grover was one of them. Nico could be one, but he didn't bother asking me questions. Thalia and Bianca were the same way too, but Bianca was different. Lots of rules didn't apply to her because Bianca was basically the awesomest human being in the world.

Now, though, Annabeth was trying to bridge the gap between the school world and the personal world. It wasn't as if she really knew what she was doing, most people did the same thing. So, I naturally deflected the question.

"Oh, I'm tired because I was up late and didn't get much sleep," I replied, obviously sarcastic.

"Is it because of working?"

"Uh, yeah," I said, a little nervous at the way she deflected my deflection. By this time, we had reached the bus stop.

"Oh, that sucks," Annabeth replied. "How late do you work?"

The face she gave me was a weird combination of honest interest, confusion, and a dash of 'are you crazy'?

"Um, I will be working from eight to midnight," I said, trying to put the topic to rest. "But I did six to two this weekend."

"Do you get a lot of tips?" She asked.

"Friday I did," I said, remembering Bianca's over-generous $184.94 tip.

"That doesn't count!" Annabeth smiled. The bus arrived and we got on it.

"What do you mean?"

"Bianca gave you a huge tip," she said. "It clearly wasn't normal. No one gets that kind of tip unless they want something extra."

"Bianca and I are just friends, though," I joked. Annabeth did the head and eyes roll.

"That's not what I meant!" she said. "I meant, like, better service, or extra… fries."

"Is that what kids are calling it these days?" I asked. "Extra fries? Not sure I understand that one. Sounds kinky though."

"Shut up."

I leaned into my handhold, closing my eyes and resting my head. "I could nap so hard right now."

"Why do you work if it makes you so tired?"

There it was. The question I had been dreading. She could have asked me about anything and I would rather answer that question than this one. I was too proud to admit why. Taking a peak out the window, I guessed that the trip was about half over.

"Hm?" I asked, stalling for time. The bus stopped at a red light. Fuck.

"Why do you work if it makes you so tired?" Annabeth repeated.

"Who says I'm tired?" I countered, straightening up. "I'm just full of energy right now!"

"You just said you were two seconds ago!"

"Lies," I said dismissively, waving my hand. "All of it."

"Ugh, whatever," Annabeth replied.

"What? I can't help it if—"

"Whatever!" Annabeth repeated, holding up her hand.

We got to our stop and climbed off the bus.

"So how was your Friday night?" I asked, grinning slightly. Thalia and Bianca had told me that they had visited Rachel's.

"It was really fun," Annabeth said as we drew even with our apartment entrances. "I'll see you later," she said quickly, leaving for her building.

"Bye," I said, feeling a bit off. She had left rather suddenly-It was quite possible I wasn't the only one avoiding questions. Shrugging it off, I remembered that my bed awaited me. A rush of excitement ran through my body as I climbed the stairs, laughing out loud.

"Naptime!" I cried, throwing the door to the apartment open. Backpack in the corner, I stripped off the hot-uncomfortable clothing as I went. Off with the sweater-vest, off with the shirt and tie; shirtless, I dropped into bed with a relaxed sigh. Time to finally relax.


	8. Annabeth IV

**Annabeth IV**

* * *

**Monday, Day 8**

* * *

When Percy asked me about how the party went, my mind kind of went blank and in a bit of a panic, I got the hell out of there.

I wasn't trying to avoid him, I just really didn't know what to say. I still didn't really know how I felt about the night, even fifteen minute later, when all the good retorts you could've used come swarming into your head.

Back to the night, though. It _was_ fun. It was a blast just dancing with Thalia and Bianca and stuff, meeting new people, sneaking back in… but something about everything just made me want to keep it to myself. And for some reason, I felt weird talking to Percy about those things.

I swung the door to my apartment closed behind me and flopped down on the couch. Bored, I started flipping through my phone. I had stuff to do; I just didn't want to do any of it. So, I checked Facebook. And then Twitter. And Instagram. Finally, I got around to my texts, which was where I saw IT, hiding amongst the other conversations I'd been having with other people.

**From: Jack**

I hadn't wanted to see that name. A feeling of something shot through my stomach and I started to feel sick. Not 'sick' as in _'where's the toilet, I'm about to blow chunks'_, but 'sick' as in _'ouch, my lungs, liver, intestines, kidneys and heart are all falling into a black hole located in my stomach'_. My point was that seeing the name hurt a lot. My brain wasn't the kind of brain that let go of failures very easily. And in lieu of a better name for this, ah, 'scenario', it _was_ a failure in my mind. And how dare I fail? Others, yes, they were weaker. They could fail. I, however, was in the unfortunate scenario of being Annabeth Chase. I had no such excuse. I could not fail. And oh, how I hated myself for doing it.

The worst part was that I knew it wasn't my fault but I still reacted like it was. In reality, I just… I just didn't understand. Weeks on weeks of maybes, weeks of this, weeks of that… and in the end, I really didn't have a lot to show for it. What was it all for? The entire emotional rollercoaster we had been on… or at least, the one I had been on. I didn't really let him in on the fact but I was up and down as much as he was.

At any rate, I know it sounds stupid to say that I didn't really know what it all meant to him. I know the agony it had caused me… and he clearly felt the same pain (maybe worse) but for certain, I didn't know. And that really killed me.

I sighed heavily. This was all so stupid.

The problem was that so much of my happiness had been caught up in the actions of one person. _Clearly_ this was why people were so hesitant to let people in. Being vulnerable to someone led to the risk of being hurt. There was, of course, the chance of an awesome and spectacular upside, but there wasn't a whole lot of that flying around right now.

"How does someone just wake up and not be sure of something anymore?!" I yelled to my empty apartment. My blood roiled with frustration.

I understood that Jack was entitled to make his own decisions. It was his life, not mine. I also understood that the line was drawn and there was probably no going over it ever again. But with him gone, there was just something… missing from my life. There was a hole in my brain where the thoughts of him used to go. I _couldn't_ think of him anymore, so I tried not to. But, all that lead to was a Jack-sized hole in my head. It was a quiet kind of suffering. One where you knew why you hurt, and what was causing you to hurt, but still not being able to stop the pain. The shit just kept stabbing at you.

I almost wished it would all hit me at once—then maybe I could get over it and get on with my life. But apparently, my brain didn't work that way. Apparently the little minions running the show up there were content to slip little memories of him randomly into my thought processes. Us hanging out. Us hiking in the Sierra Nevada. Us just doing something dumb; hanging at the beach, or catching a wave. Climbing on top of abandoned buildings. Spray-painting some really stupid graffiti on the same buildings.

We had hardly said anything to each other since our last conversation. Not that I could think of anything to say—another part of the shitty-ness. We had been great friends and I had no clue if we were ever going to be like that again. I was really starting to miss that.

My phone buzzed angrily, trying to tell me I had received a message. Picking up the phone, I glanced at the screen and felt my whole body collapse on itself again.

_**Reyna: Were you going to tell me?**_

I typed a quick reply,_about what?_

_**Jack**_

_Oh._ I typed._ I didn't mean to just ignore you but I've been trying to not think about it. plus life here is still rough_

_**Are you still moving in?**_

_No, that's done. Just adjusting to the new life. It'll get better in a week_.

_**If you say so. So are you okay?**_

I thought about it for a moment.

_Most of the time, I am. Everything will be going alright and then my mind goes all 'fuck you!' on me and serves up a few memories that used to be special. _

_**You know, I know it's been shitty for you, but it hasn't been sunshine and roses for us over here. I know you had to leave, but the group's been blasted to pieces. It'd be nice if we could actually talk once in a while.**_

I groaned. Reyna was right, I was being selfish. But I haven't had time to even think about my friends back in 'frisco.

_I'm sorry, really, _I replied to her. _But I've been so busy I hardly have time to eat these days._

_**You have time to talk to me right now.**_

_Right, but only because I just got home and you're just finishing up lunch_

_**Where there is a will, there is always a way.**_

I didn't reply to that one. Partially because she was right and partially because I had nothing to say to that. Reyna wasn't really looking for an answer anyways, she was really just bitching me out for being a shitty friend. My phone buzzed again.

_**Call me at 6:30 your time, before I go to work. **_

_Ok,_ I said. I tossed my phone aside and buried my face in my hands. Life was really starting to pile up on top of me. I groaned in frustration.

"Aaaaaaahhhhhh!"

* * *

I set down my phone and stared out the windows of my now dark room. The clock on my phone read 7:30. My conversation with Reyna left me feeling… blah. It was a good talk, we cleared the air of a lot of details, and we updated each other on our lives. But, it made me feel like something was slightly out of place. I rubbed my eyes again. The problems were piling up.

Problem: Reyna wasn't getting the attention she wanted nor deserved.

Problem: Jack

Problem: talking with Reyna made me think of Jack

Problem: none of my homework was stared

Problem: it's getting dark and I need to turn on the light but I'm too lazy to move

Problem—

"Speak of the devil," I muttered to myself, watching through the window as the light in Percy's room snapped on. Percy himself walked into the room and started to root around on the floor for something.

_Now there is someone that is quickly becoming a problem_, I thought to myself.

The stupid, goofy, kid was slowly starting to grow on me. I will admit that I was slightly impressed with his quick with the witty (but mostly goofy) remarks whenever we would talk. There were few that could handle my sarcasm and even less who could toss it right back in my face.

So what was the problem? He reminded me too much of how I once felt for Jack.

Yeah.

Percy leaned over at the waist, searching around the floor for something. I watched as he stood up, holding a bundle of clothing; something white and something black. Whatever it was, he threw it on the bed and started to take his shirt off. It actually took me a while to figure out what exactly he was about to do (stupid, right? He grabs the bottom of his shirt and lifts it over his head. He's clearly going to vacuum the rug. ) but it took me to the point that he had his shirt off and he was going for the pants when I realized (a) he was about to get changed and (b) this was probably something I shouldn't be watching.

"Ooookay, Annabeth!" I said aloud, turning away. "Maybe we shouldn't be perving on the neighbors."

I looked up at the wall that I had turned too; the light switch sat teasingly next to the door. I knew it was inevitable. I had to turn it on. The problem was that my give-a-shit meter was dangerously low. Sighing to myself, I got up and flicked it on. A sudden movement across the street caught my eye and I turned to the window just in time to watch Percy, one leg in his pants and one halfway-in, reaching frantically for his window curtain. Instead of closing it, like he hoped to, he fell, pulled the drape with him, and pulled the curtains right off the wall.

I couldn't help it. I started laughing my ass off.

I don't know if he saw me, because by the time I finally got my act together he was turning off the light in his room and shutting the door. He wandered through the living room, paused at the door to shut off the lights, and left the apartment. The last I saw of him was a dimly-lit figure exiting his building and jogging for the bus stop.

I'm not exactly sure why I cared so much to watch his every move; I guess it was like watching television. Sometimes it was therapeutic to watch other people struggling to deal with their own problems. Made me feel like I wasn't alone.

But the way I understood it, Percy's problems were real and a bit worse than mine. I didn't really know for sure, though. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I didn't really know shit about Percy Jackson. Other than the fact that he didn't have to deal with a dictator for a mother, or have to deal with friends a million miles away either breaking your heart or demanding you spend time on them.

_Easy there,_ I thought to myself. _That's not very fair._ _Reyna doesn't deserve that._

"No, she doesn't," I muttered, sitting down at my desk. I grabbed my backpack and leaned it up against the side of my chair, opening it. Pulling out my AP US History binder, I got to work.

* * *

**A/N: Yeah, not dead. Just overwhelmed with life and life and life. The last seven or eight weeks has been some major shit-storming for me, so sorry about not posting. In other news, I have no idea when the next chapter is coming out. It would be more theraputic for me if it comes out sooner, so we'll see how the chips fall. Deuces, peeps!**

**And thanks for still reading! Sorry if it sucks. Usually it takes me one chapter to get back into the swing of the story.**


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